The simplified story is that one of my students cried after I made her pick up garbage for a day. The real story goes more like this:

Each trimester, I take my students on a service learning field trip. We spend a morning volunteering at a local homeless shelter. In the afternoon, students pick up trash at a local park and do random acts of kindness. It can sound unglamorous, especially in the winter. But most students love it and look forward to it for months. Some of the most meaningful moments of my career happen on this trip. And, apparently it means something to the students as well.

After each trip we debrief the experience. It was during this that a student cried. Her words are what motivate my philosophy of teaching: